Tensei Shoujo no Rirekisho - Volume 3 - Chapter 68

68. Freshman 19 – Claude’s Harem

“Claude, I was worried. Were you all right after everything that happened?”

Claude did his best to fight back when I was kidnapped by Boss Alex. He had even been tied up with a rope. He must have been fine since he was fine now, and I thought of Claude as a cradle-robber, but I had been a little worried about him.

“Ah, I’m fine. After that, I went straight back to Irene’s and started a search for you… I’m sorry I couldn’t find you.”

“No… It was my fault. I’m sorry.”

“You were kidnapped by bandits and sold to Rubyfallen. It was only natural to be frightened.”

Because talking about Alex and his people was a little complicated, I had told Alan and Sir Cain a made-up story that I was kidnapped by bandits and immediately sold to Rubyfallen, where I was adopted.

“No. The people at Rubyfallen treated me well, so I wasn’t frightened… I was just worried that everyone in Rainforest might have been anxious when they heard.”

When I said so and apologized again, Claude said I had nothing to apologize for and excused me easily. When we last met, I had called him a child-bride hobbyist (my translation for “lolicon”) but he’s basically just a kind person.

Sorry, Claude.

“By the way, you’re 10 years old now, right, Ryou?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I see… Then we’ve been betrothed for about five years.”

Huh?

Just now, I had been thinking, “He’s basically a kind person,” and starting to like Claude a little, so what kind of meaning is that? What does that mean?! Claude’s whole body must be made of jokes!

“Har har, I hate you, Claude. You love joking around, as always.”

“Eh? I’m serious. We made a promise, didn’t we?”

…

“Uncle Claude! What do you mean by ‘betrothed’?”

I heard a surprised voice behind me. I turned to see Alan looking at Claude with a surprised expression.

“Well, Ryou and I promised to marry one another.”

“Eh… isn’t marriage supposed to be between adults?”

Alan threw out an opinion without losing his surprised expression. That’s right! Good henchman! For the first time, I’m glad to have Alan as a minion. Keep talking!

“Of course. I’ll wait until Ryou becomes an adult. That was the promise. Ryou also agreed to it.”

Alan’s surprised expression turned robotic.

His look said, “It’s really that serious?”

Ahem! At that time I had decided to run away, so I thought it would be fine! If worse came to worse, I would have just escaped! It’s fine! A youthful indiscretion!

But now it’s different! Like Mama Kou, I want to fall in love with someone and pursue each other to the ends of the earth before finally getting married! Even though Mama Kou isn’t married! And I don’t really have any plans to marry anyone either!

“Ahem! Claude, you’re still joking around. Ah ha ha. Besides, as an adopted daughter of Rubyfallen, I’m not free to decide my own marriage anymore.”

That’s right. I’m still the Count’s daughter! I’m still a Rubyfallen! Even though it’s despised as a cursed land where no magicians are born! I’m still a Count’s daughter! I can refuse Claude with my head held high!

“Well, so what?”

“…More importantly, Claude, who are those beautiful young ladies behind you?! I’ve been really curious!”

Claude seemed to be making a rebuttal, but I managed to interrupt. Besides, it was true that I was really interested in the three ladies behind Claude. After all, they had been glaring at me ever since Claude and I started talking about our marriage!

Scary!

“Oh, this is the first time you’ve met, Ryou. I was in a slave dealer’s shop looking for you, and I ended up buying these girls.”

As Claude spoke, the oldest of the three girls bowed.

“My name is Lione. I am much indebted to Mr. Claude.”

She was the lavish, big-breasted, “Nice body!” type. Her face was smiling, but her eyes were not.

Next, the woman next to her with a short hairstyle also bowed.

“Mystia.”

With that, she just glared at me. Quit it!

The shortest girl bowed like the others.

“Wow! So this is the Ryou Claude told us about! You’re so cute! I’m Ronne! Nice to meet you!”

The twin-tailed youngest girl’s eyes sparkled as she spoke! Her sweet voice rang out like a sound effect as she greeted me.

Oh, thank goodness. This last one seems pretty kind! She said, “You’re cute!” so she must be a good person.

These must be the people Alan told me Claude had bought at the slave dealer’s shop. Claude’s harem. That glaring they were doing earlier must have been because they were scared a new rival had appeared. But I don’t want to enter your harem! I need to clear up the misunderstanding. A woman’s jealousy can be scary.

Let’s get Ronne, the twin-tailed girl who doesn’t seem to have any particularly bad feelings toward me, to help solve the misunderstanding.

“Sorry, Ryou, I’ve got to get back to my study. I still have a little work left. Alan and Cain, we’ll have more time to talk at dinner later, so I’ll hear all about your school life then.”

With those words, the troublesome Claude left the room. His three maids followed behind him. And the youngest, Ronne, who was last to leave, just before shutting the door gave me a glare and a “Tsk!” and slammed the door.

Uh, what? Ronne wasn’t the lone kind one after all?! …I’m scared.

“I knew from overhearing a little of my mother and Claude’s conversation… Is that not what you want to do, Ryou?”

As I sat taking tea and sweets and wondering how I should go about breaking off my engagement with Claude, Sir Cain’s voice roused me. I raised my head to find Sir Cain’s worried face looking back at me. Next to him, Alan was still muttering, “Ryou is getting married to Uncle Claude…” in dismay. I guess I too would be surprised to discover that my uncle was a lolicon. It must be hard to accept that any relative is a lolicon.

I let Alan be for the time being and turned back to Sir Cain.

“Do you actually want to marry Claude?”

When I turned to him, Sir Cain tilted his head at me with a serious expression.

“Honestly, I don’t want to. I’m not sure that I’m ready for marriage yet. And if possible… I hope I can marry someone that I actually love.”

Though, in reality, I know that might be difficult in aristocratic society.

“Okay… Then I’ll be your advocate as well. I’ll tell my mother that you don’t want it. Perhaps she’ll think over your situation and decide to withdraw her approval from the marriage with Claude. It’s not impossible, so we’ll talk it over.”

“Thank you very much! …Would getting married to Claude really be considered a good thing for me?”

“Yeah… Setting aside your feelings on the matter, in your position it would have been good for you. When we reach fifteen, those of us who aren’t wizards have their family names taken and are no longer aristocrats. Like, I call myself Cain Rainforest now, but when I turn fifteen, I’ll just be Cain. You understand so far?”

I do understand so far. When I turn fifteen, I won’t be able to call myself a Rubyfallen anymore. If you’re an adult in this country, you lose your family name unless you inherit the title. If you’re a magician, you’ll automatically be called “Magister,” or if possible you can inherit your family’s title, but otherwise you’ll lose your surname.

However, even if you’re not a magician, you can gain a semi-peerage based on your contributions. If you’ve achieved certain accomplishments in commerce, medicine, or military action, and the king recognizes you, you can gain the rank of semi-aristocrat and once again regain a surname. The surname given by the throne can be freely decided by the individual, but for people like Irene who inherit the title and territory of a Count, their surname will remain the same as the territory. People like Claude who earned his title of Merchant often use their name as is, if their parents are powerful nobility.

“Of course I understand. I will return to being Ryou at fifteen.”

I gave Sir Cain a firm nod.

“Generally, the best outcome for a non-magical woman is to marry a wizard.That way you can become a noblewoman. But honestly I think it would be difficult for you to marry a wizard.”

“Is that because I’m from Rubyfallen?”

“There is that. Honestly, there are many magicians that are prejudiced against Rubyfallen. But the primary reason is that, because magicians basically come from bloodlines, no aristocrat wants to marry the child of a family where no magicians are born.”

Indeed, that’s not wrong, since I come from farmers who are about as far from magicians’ bloodlines as you can get.

“Usually, for a semi-aristocrat like Uncle Claude, bloodlines are important. Uncle Claude has no magical talent, but if his spouse is from a magical family, half his children may be magicians. Only, the likelihood has become much smaller lately, so families are placing even more importance on bloodlines.”

So magicians are basically hereditary. That’s why someone like Charlotte, a magician suddenly born in a frontier village, is such a strange story. I guess getting married to a semi-aristocrat like Claude is nearly impossible. It would be a sort of fairy tale to so easily marry into a semi-aristocratic family.

When I think about it that way, Claude is a really strange person. I guess me being a little girl was good because he’s a lolicon. But, if he took me on as a little girl at first, he’d have to know that I’d get bigger as time passes, so his feelings shouldn’t have stuck with me in particular.

To be sure, Claude did say he liked my intelligence. If we had children, he’d expect the children to be smart. Perhaps he had become convinced such smart children would be needed in the future. Claude might have looked at the magical birthrate situation and decided to bet on something other than magic. He is after all a merchant at heart.

Well, Claude is kind and all, and good with money, so if there was any love I might have gone with the flow… But, whatever. Either way, I’m not interested in marrying someone just to gain a title.

“Yes, I understand, Sir Cain. It would certainly be easier to become a semi-aristocrat by marrying Claude, but I’ve always intended to earn my title with my own hands. Mr. Bash-… The Earl of Rubyfallen told me to do my best at school to earn a semi-aristocratic title.” I said, smiling.

Before I left for school, Mr. Bash told me that I should aspire to become either a knight, a merchant, or a doctor. Those were the three semi-aristocratic titles that people who aren’t magicians can acquire, based on their efforts. If you achieve military success, you’ll receive knighthood. If you do well in business, you’ll become a Merchant. If you contribute to medicine, you’ll receive a medical degree. Mr. Bash asked me to get one of those three titles to help him manage the Rubyfallen territory.

To be honest, I don’t deserve Mr. Bash. He sent me to school, he and Mama Kou prepared everything for my trip to the royal capital, and he also took care of the whole Boss Alex thing so well.

I really wanted to help Mr. Bash out.

“That’s right, I’m sure someone like Ryou will be able to get a title on her own. I’m trying hard to become a knight, but you’ll probably get it even sooner!” Sir Cain said, laughing.

It looks like with Sir Cain’s cooperation, I’ll be able to safely break off the engagement with Claude!

Now, just when I went back to thinking about how to go about it, I heard the door open. I looked in the direction of the sound, and there was a small crack open in the door, through which someone was listening to us.

“Chira!”

Sir Cain was so excited that he stood up and shouted.

“Gah!” someone exclaimed at Sir Cain’s yell. I thought the owner of the mysterious voice would go away, but then the door opened wide and Madame Irene appeared. She was holding a little girl on her chest. The girl who had been peering through the door gap. She’s so cute! This must be the sister Alan mentioned, Chira!

It seems little Chira thought of us as nothing but strangers, for she was looking at us in fear.

“Mother! Please let me hold Chira!”

Sir Cain, still very excited, begged Madame Irene. Irene nodded with a smile and passed Chira over to Sir Cain. Little Chira seemed nervous, but she submitted to the hug.

“Oh, Ryou, that outfit is wonderful. It looks great on you.”

Thanks for the gracious compliment, Irene. As always, simple compliments are the best.

“Madame Irene, this must be Chira. I’ve heard a little about her from Alan and Sir Cain. May I touch her?”

“Of course! She’s a little shy, but when she gets used to you she’s a friendly child.”

Since I got Madame Irene’s permission, I touched Chira’s soft, pudgy hand as Sir Cain held her. It felt a little good. What’s this dangerous sensation? I feel like I’m starting to understand how a lolicon thinks.

Sir Cain coaxed Chira, “It’s Cain, your big brother!” and Chira responded, “Ba-ba Cayin.” 

Alan, who had been standing next to us in a state of “lolicon shock” over his uncle, revived at this and said, “Call me Boss!” The good little Chira obediently said, “Bawss,” which was adorable, but I think I’d better have a few words with Henchman Alan later.

Meanwhile I heard from Irene that Chira appeared to be a magician. Now that she was learning to speak, she seemed to be able to see mana when she tried to see it.

Although Alan didn’t say anything but “Oh,” a second magician being born almost immediately into the family shouldn’t happen these days. I think it’s pretty amazing.

Sir Cain, hearing that Chira was a magician, looked conflicted for a moment but then smiled at her and said tenderly, “Good, Chira!”

Really, Sir Cain is such a great person. If I were Sir Cain… I’d feel like, “why am I the only one who can’t use magic, this is so unfair,” and pull a terrible face at the little child. As expected, Sir Cain. The only thing on your bucket list is to be a poet!

Irene started making a restless expression, as apparently she’d been preparing a welcome home party for our dinner, though she was proud of how cute Chira was. I call it a dinner party, but it’s really just eating an extravagant dinner with only relatives participating.

Claude will also be there, so I’m hoping to get him to acknowledge the breaking of the engagement. I feel like it wouldn’t be good to take our time. Just like Madame Irene, I too need to do a bit of groundwork in preparation for the dinner party.